Piper Lowers Aussie Record Again in 200m Breast at Canet

CANET, France. June 7. AUSTRALIAN breaststroker, Jim Piper, continued his record breaking ways yesterday, when he again lowered his own Australian 200m breaststroke mark for the second time in 12 days swimming a 2:12.40 to win the men’s event ahead of Russian, Dimitri Komorninkov (2:12.63) and Frenchman, Yohaun Bernard (2:14.37) on the second leg of the Mare Nostrum Swimming tour in Canet, France.

The Campbelltown 19 year old first put his name into the record books at the East Asian Games a little over a week ago when he swam 2:12.74 to take out the title in Osaka, Japan.

Piper now his eyes fixed on the Commonwealth mark of 2:11.26 set by Britain's Nick Gillingham at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992.

For coach Alan Thompson, Piper's new record time came as a surprise, "When Jim came home from Osaka, he trained very hard for two days and the message I received on his arrival in Europe was that he was feeling pretty tired," Thompson said today.

"He obviously made a pretty swift recovery. The way he was looking before he left I thought his 100m time would come down," he said. "I had no real expectation on him to lower the Australian record again over 200m but Jimmy obviously had other ideas. It was another great swim and there is no doubt he will try to beat that time again at the next two meets in Rome and Monte Carlo before coming home to compete in the Telstra Grand Prix series in Melbourne."

Piper’s performance comes as a fitting tribute to Australian breaststroke legend, coach and former president of Australian swimming, Terry Gathercole who passed away last week in Canberra.

While Piper's swim was the only record at Canet, thre were other outstanding performances

Women's Events
Holland's triple Olympic gold medalist, Inky DeBruijn, made a statement, winning the women's 100m freestyle decisively in 54.62, with Slovakia's Martina Moravcova more than a second behind (55.77).

Veteran Claudia Poll swam the third fastest time of her life to win a close duel in the 400m free with Russia's Irina Oufintseva. The 29 year-old Costa Rican, a gold medalist in 1996 and a double bronze medalist in Sydney last year, clocked 4:08.91 to the 15 year-old Russian's 4:09.22.

Spain's Nina Zhivanevskaya outlasted Chinese newcomer Li Yuanging, 15, to take the 100 back in 1:02.05. Li was a strong second in 1:02.48, while France's Roxanna Maracineanu, the 1998 world champ in the 200m back, was third in 1;02.92.

The USA's Amanda Beard used a strong back half to win the 200m breast in 2:27.73 over South Africa's sarah Poewe, 2:28.88.

Mette Jacobsen won the battle of the Danes in the 200m fly, clocking 2:11.06 to countrywoman's Sophia Skou's 2:12.03.

World record-holder and olympic champion yana Klochkova won the 400 IM in a breeze, as her 4L41.04 was more than 12 seconds ahead of her nearest pursuer.

Thorpe got a measure of revenge, taking the 400 free in a ho-hum 3:51.47 ahead of Frenchman Nicolas Rostoucher (3:55.54) with Alexei Filipets of Russia taking the bronze in (3:56.70).

Croatia's Gordan Kozulj, better known as a 200m backstroker, sailed through the 100 in 55.67, well ahead of Austrlia's Ray Hass in second.

Ukraine's Denis Sylantyev ran away and hid in the 200m fly, touching in 1:56.49, more than three seconds in front of Russia's Anatoli Poliakov (1:59.59) and
Australia's Bill Kirby (1:59.62)–the other sub-two-minute flyers.

Aussie Grant McGregor took out the 400m individual medley in (4:22.44) just ahead of Canadian, Curtis Myden (4:22.60) and Israel’s Mickey Halika (4:23.61).